50 YEARS OF ITALIAN POWER: Presenting the Lamborghini Egoista

By Michael Lockhart

May 19, 2013

If you happened to be within earshot of Italy last weekend, you may have heard the roar of hundreds of Lamborghinis as they made their way across the country in honor of the 50th anniversary of the raging bull manufacturer.

Naturally, Lamborghini decided its 50th anniversary, for which many fans and owners traveled from far and wide to attend, wouldn’t be complete without a special vehicle for the occasion. Presenting the Egoista. {“pbembedwidget”:“gallery”,“id”:“13934”,“size”:“medium”,“alignment”:“right”}

Jokes aside on the self-congratulatory name, the Egoista is one hell of a beast that encapsulates the very drive, passion and determination that has defined Lambos past, with equal homage being given to the consumer and track divisions of the company. Designed by Walter de Silva, the Italian design guru who currently heads Volkswagen Group Design—aka VW, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti and Lambo—the Egoista is a concept that blends imagination with the spirit of the bull.

De Silva described the forging of this car as led by the heart rather than the head. “This is a car made for one person only, to allow them to have fun and express their personality to the maximum. It is designed purely for hyper-sophisticated people who want only the most extreme and special things in the world.”

The launch video below may exaggerate a few capabilities of the jet-inspired concept—say, detaching from a fighter cockpit and mating to the wheels on the ground—but there is nothing to be shy about in this wicked demon. Featuring a 5.2-liter V10 capable of producing 600 horses, the Egoista catapults the single driver in his custom carbon-fiber control cocoon—a nod to the Apache chopper—into any dangerous, wild or fast situation (Playboy Mansion, anyone?).

The vehicle’s design is definitively muscular, an exoskeleton engineered for strength and power that evokes a bull lowering its head, ready to charge. We like that this car doesn’t give an ounce of leeway across the board, from the integrated speed-controlled flaps for aerodynamics to the runway clearance lights and flight indicator beacons that dominate every angle, curve and appendage sculpted from antiradar material.

Jumping into the cockpit Maverick-style is required due to the lack of doors, but once settled under the electronically controlled dome, drivers strap on the four-point seatbelt and activate the heads-up display on the dome in lieu of a typical control panel and get ready to fly.

While the details of this fantasy behemoth have us salivating, it will remain merely a dream, not just for us and the brand’s millions of fans across the world, but also to those who could afford the undetermined price this gem would fetch.

You see, the Egoista was built as a gift from Lamborghini to itself on its 50th birthday, a reminder of its cherished past and a desire for a valiant future. A vehicle of grand inspiration to be admired but not touched or possessed by anyone: a forever dream. “It represents hedonism taken to the extreme. It is a car without compromises. In a word: Egoista.”